What do guests want to see on your menu?

30th August 2017

Do you make it easy for guests to arm themselves with prior knowledge about your menus before they arrive at your door? If not, you may want to think about making some changes.

The average adult spends 46 minutes a month, more than nine hours a year, perusing menus online in order to decide what to eat out, according to a recent poll, commissioned by Giraffe World Kitchen. Additionally, 63% of guests judge a restaurant by reading its menu ahead of their visit, according to a survey carried out by Elliotts. So, if you're not providing easy access to your offering and considering the image your menus portray, you could well be missing out on a lucrative trick.

Ensuring your menus provide all the information a guest could require is key to influencing buying behaviours and consequently boosting profitability. With the Elliotts research revealing that over 75% of guests find a dish they would consider ordering within two minutes and 65% arrive at that decision just one minute later, perfecting your menu is crucial to winning guests round fast in an increasingly competitive industry.

Elliotts found that 67% of guests stated a preference for short, concise menu descriptions with two in three admitting they only read the full descriptions of up to five menu options. Additionally, hospitality software partner, Fourth, conducted a survey of their own which revealed that the same percentage of guests wanted to be informed of the nutritional details of each dish on the menu when they eat out.

Fourth found that half of their respondents had started at least one healthy eating plan each year lasting three and a half weeks on average and a third worried about ordering from a menu due to the fact that they can't trust what's in it. The nation is paying more attention to nutrition, although this consumer group does have a reputation for chopping and changing its dining requirements on a regular basis. Hospitality operators who offer full transparency of nutritional information may find that they have a wider appeal to this crowd.

Guests want prior knowledge of a venue before they even step foot inside - remember that first impression starts when they first take a look at your menu.